Hema Patel
The last one in the office on a cold January evening, Hema Patel receives a text message that changes the trajectory of her life and puts her on the path to search for greater meaning. The text message contained the news that her 27 year old cousin had died from suicide.
The news came completely out of the blue. No signs. No warnings. No indicators. Shocked to the core, Hema Patel armed her family with the Help is at Hand booklet and then set about to know everything she could about suicide. Determined to make a difference somehow, Hema almost became a Mental Health First Aid Instructor. And now is very grateful that that wasn’t the choice she made.
Instead Hema Patel made the decision to train in RTT, Rapid Transformational Therapy. A form of hypnotherapy combined with NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming. She learned how we have 50,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day. 80% of which are not true and 90% of which are recycled from the previous day. She learned about neuroplasticity and subconscious reprogramming. She began learning about the huge impact that unhealed childhood trauma can have on how we think, feel, act and behave as adults, without us even realising it.
She took course after course on suicide prevention and binge read every article about university students who’d died from suicide. Hema Patel’s cousin was a final year Med student. Last year, Hema campaigned for a statutory duty of care for university students. Her efforts on LinkedIn contributed to the petition receiving 128,000 signatures, more than the 100,000 needed for a parliamentary debate.
Hema Patel was part of the award-winning Baton of Hope team in Brighton. A UK-wide initiative to raise awareness of suicide prevention. And Hema is now part of the global More Than movement, intending to revolutionise the way we think about and speak about suicide. Sharing ways to eliminate the real stigma, which isn’t around shame, and guidance on how to truly thrive.
Facing her own fears of being seen and visible on social media and overcoming the negative self-talk in knowing what to say, when and how, Hema has gone from the child whose school report said ‘needs to speak up more’ to actively campaigning for greater awareness of suicide prevention, suicide bereavement support, unhealed trauma, grief, loss and coping mechanisms.
Hema Patel wants people to know that there is wisdom in your wounds, that healing is available to us all and will look different for each one of us, and that your future can be different to your past.
Hema realised that when you make your purpose bigger than your fears, and get really visible and vocal, ANYTHING is POSSIBLE!
SPEAKING TOPICS
A Woman’s Search for Meaning – growing through grief and the reinvigorating power of truly connecting with your purpose. A deeper connection to purpose drives performance in all areas of life, work and relationships. Hema reminds us that the opposite of depression isn’t happiness, it’s purpose. Let’s talk Ikigai and your bigger why!
Knowing What To Say – when colleagues are struggling or in crisis, it can be hard to know what to say and so it’s often easier to say nothing. Saying nothing can cost lives. Language matters and can either perpetuate or eliminate stigma. Hema shares the 5 words which could potentially save a life and the 40 second speech which shows you care.
Your Mind is Lying to You – thought patterns loop like an old record. Hema reveals how you can take the needle off the record and play a new groove instead, using the inner workings of the subconscious mind to work for you, rather than against you. Developing a growth mindset the easy way, with hypnosis, the secret weapon of elite performers.
The Wisdom in Your Wounds – we are hardwired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. What if the most valuable lessons were found in the loss? Hema invites us to re-examine pain avoidance and to look at the role that coping mechanisms play in preventing us from extracting wisdom from the wounds of our unhealed trauma, grief and loss. Unhealed trauma really is the elephant in the room.
Moving Forwards with Fear – what sits behind perfectionism, procrastination, people-pleasing, masking and rebelliousness is fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of judgement, fear of rejection and fear of status quo. Behind each of these fears is unhealed trauma, grief and loss. Discover how each fear serves you and stops you. Hema also shares ways of moving forwards. Because nobody likes to feel stuck! An additional 60 min workshop can be included called Unstuck Yourself. Participants leave feeling energised, inspired and more equipped to make bold, fast confident decisions and take courageous fear-facing action.
If you are interested in booking Hema Patel as a motivational speaker please email us on enquiries@scampspeakers.co.uk
